Which Is Worse – Bad Grammar or Bad Sex? Next Friday on One-Minute Book Reviews – the Delete Key Awards for the Year’s Worst Writing in Books

Which authors don’t use their delete keys enough? Find out when the shortlist for the second annual Delete Key Awards competition is announced on Feb. 29

Which is worse in a book – bad grammar or bad sex scenes? Pomposity or writing dumbed-down to a third-grade level? Nasty stereotypes or mind-numbing clichés? An OVERUSE OF CAPITAL LETTERS or an underuse of the space bar sothatabookhaslotsoflinesthatlooklikethis? And what about those manic exclamation points (!!!) that some novelists love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

These are the questions you wrestle with when you are selecting the finalists for the Delete Key Awards for the worst writing in hardcover or paperback books published in the preceding year. You’ll know the answers starting at noon Eastern Time next Friday, Feb. 29, when One-Minute Book Reviews will announce the shortlist for the prizes. You’ll have two weeks to comment on the nominations before the winners are named on March 15. The winning books are announced on the date of Julius Caesar’s assassination because their authors have assassinated the English language in the selected passages.

You can read last year’s shortlist by clicking on this link www.oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com/2007/02/. If you scroll down after reading the list, you’ll find separate posts with writing samples from each finalist. Last year’s winners were Danielle Steel’s Toxic Bachelors (grand prize winner), Mitch Albom’s For One More Day (first runner-up) and Claire Messud’s The Emperor’s Children (second runner-up).

The Delete Key Awards do not honor “the year’s worst books” but the worst writing in books – lines, paragraphs or passages that make you cringe. Entertainment Weekly published a list of the five worst books of 2007, discussed in this post: